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Brands Hatch 19 - 20th November.
Two cars were entered for the last Britsports race of 2004. Doug Hart
teamed up with Alex Buncombe and Peter Hobday decided to do the two 45
minute races by himself.
It is not very often you get the chance to race on the fabulous Grand
Prix circuit and despite the time of year a good entry arrived.
Qualifying was at 9.00am on Saturday and this time the track was
dry, however the big engined Jades were enjoying this power circuit.
Tony
Sinclair claimed pole with a very quick 1:23.154 lap of this 2.6220
mile ( 4.22km ) circuit. An average speed of 113.51 mph ( 183kph
). Hart and
Buncombe were third with a time of 1:25.398. A very cautious Hobday
was 9th. With a difference of lap times approaching 30 seconds
down the grid,
there was going to be a lot of traffic to negotiate.
Doug Hart managed to hold his grid position at the rolling start,
but was soon demoted to fourth by the V6 Juno. His Chiron was
not handling
well following an alteration to the wing setting. During testing
7mph extra speed was found by reducing the wing. It was decided
to reduce
it further by half a hole. This small amount was too much and
adverseley affected the car. None the less, a usefull test on this
circuit
for which we had no previous data available. When the safety
car was sent out to
allow recovery of a stranded car all cars came in to do their
compulsory 30 second pit stop. Having been given some false information
from
one the officials about how this should be done, resulted in
Doug dropping
to the back of the pack. When the race resumed, Doug went from
20th to 8th in one lap.
Doug pressed on as hard as he could and finished fourth, which
would be the grid position for Alex in race two.
Peter had an uneventful but rewarding drive and came home 9th.
The start of race two was unbelievable. Alex held fourth around
Paddock Hill Bend and stayed on the outside of the track on
the uphill section
to Druids. He then drove around the outside of the Juno and
one of the Jades and reappeared in second place. With Tony Sinclair
at the wheel,
the Jade pulled out a small lead and after five laps Alex came
around in the lead. A drive shaft had failed. Alex powered
on
and set the fastest
lap of 1:24.433.
For the compulsory pit stop in this race a safety car period
was used to much better advantage, however Alex's lead of 36
seconds
was reduced
to virtually nothing. He had 6 laps to extend his lead to win
overall.
Having finished fourth in the first race with a time deficit
of 24.446 seconds on the winning Jade, this time had to be
made up
to win overall.
With one lap to go Alex was 27 seconds ahead and was not
aware that we had a chance of winning overall so slowed down. Fortunately
not too much.
After 92 minutes racing they won by .655 of a second. A fantastic
result especially as it was recorded by Sky Sports. Having
not raced since August
due to business commitments, Doug Hart was delighted with
the
result.
Perhaps radio communication is a necessity for this type
of racing.
Peter Hobday drove a very good race and got past five cars
after 25 minutes. With his pit board informing him he was
fourth, his
delight resulted
in him missing his breaking point at Paddock Hill Bend,
and he spent the last twenty minutes watching the proceedings
with his
car in the
gravel trap. As always, Peter really enjoyed himself and
is already looking forward to 2005.
The BARC have announced the new format to replace the Dunlop
Supersports Championship. New title is Open Sports Racing
Cup which will be
contested over six weekends. There will be four classes
as follows:-
Over 3000cc min weight 700kg
2001 - 3000cc " " 650kg
1501 - 2000cc " " 600kg
Upto 1500cc " " 575kg
There will be one qualifying session and three races.
The grid for race two will be the reverse of the finishing
position for race one.
Dates and venue are as follows:-
April 24th, Donington Park
May 28/29th, Snetterton
June 25/26th, Croft
July 30/31st, Brands Hatch
August 27/28th, Rockingham
September 24/25th, Pembrey.
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